


white flame

by commanderofraccoons



Category: Mean Girls (2004), Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: Coming Out, Confrontation, F/F, Fluff, Jealousy, Post canon, Prompt Fill, Senior year, Some angst, janis is the definition of oblivious, kind of, tinder au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 12:34:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18591382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/commanderofraccoons/pseuds/commanderofraccoons
Summary: The scene just wasn’t for her. She didn’t plan on finding a girlfriend on a dating app that was notoriously known for hookups. None of the girls so far were even Janis’s type, or even remotely close to someone that she’d sit down and have a conversation with. It was useless, to be honest, completely usele-Regina, 18.orJanis finds Regina on Tinder.





	white flame

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: janis finds regina on tinder during senior year.
> 
> also for anyone who might not know how tinder works: swiping left means no, swiping right means yes. when you match with someone, it means both parties swiped right. you can only message people you've matched with, and they can unmatch you at any time. i tried to avoid using too much of the technology parts of it, but that kinda failed, so...

For the record, she was vehemently against the idea in the first place. Damian and Cady, however, had other plans.

 

 _Get a Tinder,_ they said. _You’ll find the love of your life_ , they said.

 

They were apparently tired of her negativity, and now with Cady going steady with Aaron, she felt the need to start matchmaking. So far, all Janis had really seen were several strange facial piercings and couples with questionable sexual preferences. She didn’t have many matches yet, and she hadn’t spoken to any of the few she did have. It was only a matter of time before one of them sent her a lewd icebreaker that would have her cringing and unmatching, as Damian showed her how to do.

 

The scene just wasn’t for her. She didn’t plan on finding a girlfriend on a dating app that was notoriously known for hookups. None of the girls so far were even Janis’s type, or even remotely close to someone that she’d sit down and have a conversation with. It was useless, to be honest, completely usele-

 

_Regina, 18._

 

She blinked, eyeing the photo on her screen. Janis recognized it from Regina’s Instagram, which left a little bit of doubt in her mind. Sophomore year, after Regina had deemed Facebook officially over, she deleted her account. Someone at a neighboring school— they never found out who—took it as an opportunity to create another one under her name and use her public Instagram pictures, essentially catfishing as her. Janis knew it was fake the minute she got a friend request notification from them.

 

Janis clicked the picture, bringing up an empty profile. She had a few other pictures, too, but they all came from Regina’s Instagram. The account had to be a fake; Regina was already well known in the area popularity-wise, but the bus incident really propelled her even further. It wouldn’t be surprising if someone tried using her face to talk to people on Tinder— if she didn’t know her, she would’ve swiped right without even clicking her profile.

 

She got to the last picture and stopped. Each one seemed relatively too tame to be Regina— just generic selfies of her smiling while completely clothed. (Which practically cemented it for Janis. Wouldn’t the real Regina go for the hot shock factor?) This one wasn’t any different, but she knew the picture itself wasn’t on Regina’s Instagram. Or anyone’s Instagram.

 

Her old ombré hair made it into the picture, laying a little on Regina’s shoulder, but the rest of Janis was completely cropped out. It’d been taken over the summer during one of their big group hangouts, just a little bit after Regina’s spinal halo was removed. She was beaming at the camera, which Janis was forced to hold out for them.

 

_“Well, your arms are longer, Janis!”_

 

If this were actually her, then she had her preferences set to appear for women’s accounts. As in, she was seeking women. Regina George was maybe seeking women.

 

So she had a few options. Screenshot and text the pictures to Regina and warn her of someone pretending to be her on Tinder, which Janis swore Regina would never have. Swipe left and not worry about it, or swipe right just for the hell of if— and if it weren’t really Regina, then she could have fun insulting them in their messages if they matched. Then probably report them or something.

 

She was holding down the cropped picture of the two of them, thumb moving to the left side of her screen. Some of the picture began disappearing as she moved it before Janis brought it back to the middle. Janis _knew_ that final photo wasn’t posted anywhere, so unless Regina’s iCloud was hacked, no one else but them would have access to it.

 

Janis held the picture down again, slowly moving it over to the right side of the screen. Her ombré had disappeared as she inched it over, and throwing caution to the wind, she completed the swipe to the right.

 

_It’s a Match! Regina likes you too!_

 

She blinked, the first selfie sitting behind the words. There was an option to “say something nice”, which honestly would’ve made her laugh in another situation, and one to keep swiping. Janis hit the latter but immediately went to her matches, seeing Regina’s admittedly very attractive face at the top.

 

Should she message her? She hadn’t sent anything to anyone yet, and she expected Regina to be the one to take the lead if it really _was_ her. But why would she match with her? Just… because? Didn’t she realize what this was saying, matching with other women on Tinder?

 

Janis considered right then and there to still take the screenshot but instead send it to Damian. He’d surely have some advice for this, but she didn’t feel right about it yet. She’d talk to Regina first. Get the confirmation it wasn’t her, report and unmatch the fake Regina account, and not feel too uncomfortable when admitting she swiped right on her in the first place.

 

* * *

 

Getting Regina alone proved to not be difficult at all. They all sat at the same lunch table this year, where Regina was noticeably avoiding Janis’s eye contact. There were only two classes they shared together, but Regina didn’t seek her out in either of them. A year ago, this would’ve been the norm, but they were in a better place now. It was no longer the expectation.

 

Still, Janis knew Regina touched up her makeup in the cafeteria restroom during the final minutes of lunch, and the others usually wouldn’t follow. She used the opportunity for what it was worth and made her way over only a few minutes after she noticed Regina was gone.  

 

As she suspected, Regina was standing in front of the mirror, each stall wide open behind her. She was digging for something in her bag, not yet seeing her. Like Janis had seen people do in movies, she leaned against the wall, facing the sinks, and waited for Regina to notice her.

 

“Janis.” Regina side eyed her and pulled out an eyelash curler. “What’d you want?” She dropped the object back into the bag, evidently deciding she didn’t actually need it.

 

“Yeah, just a quick question, I guess.” Janis had her phone in her hand already, opening the Tinder app and praying the account wasn’t already taken down. Regina’s face was still in her matches, though, and she breathed an internal sigh of relief. “Is this actually you?”

 

She turned her screen to Regina, who, until she saw her phone, was confusedly staring at her. Janis watched a few different emotions play across her face before she schooled her reaction.

 

“You thought it wasn’t me?”

 

Janis pulled her phone back, meeting Regina’s eyes, which were visibly harder than they were when she walked in.

 

“What?”

 

Regina glared down at the contents of her makeup bag for a moment before picking up a tube of lip gloss. She applied it slowly, occasionally glancing at Janis through the mirror. “Not your type, Janis?”

 

Janis frowned, closing out of the app and placing her phone back into her pocket. “I’m confused.”

 

She sighed, dropping the tube into the bag from roughly a foot above it. Janis winced at the sound of the lip gloss hitting something else, but Regina seemed too busy with zipping everything up to notice. “Why’d you match with me?”

 

“Wait, so this is your real account?”

 

Regina rolled her eyes before finally giving her full undivided attention to Janis. “Yeah, it’s me. Did you seriously match with me just because you thought it was fake?”

 

“Well,” Janis started, feeling a little out of sorts at the girl’s reaction. “I didn't want someone impersonating you. It happened before, remember?”

 

She stared at Janis, and neither of them said anything for a long moment. Janis half expected the bell to ring during the silence. “Thanks, I guess.”

 

“So, like, maybe you don’t have your settings right. Or you should add something to your profile— like literally anything, dude— maybe say you’re there for friends or something because you’re sending off the wrong kind of message here and-“

 

“Seriously?” Regina interrupted, moving her makeup bag into her purse. “Janis, it’s like that for a reason.”

 

“The mysterious profile thing? That’s not a good look.”

 

It looked like it physically pained Regina not to say what she was thinking. “ _No,_  Janis, not the empty profile. I mean, it’s set to appear for girls, okay?”

 

Janis felt her jaw drop just a bit, but it wasn’t like she didn’t consider that as a possibility. That last picture of Regina with Janis really should’ve let her know that the account was real. But she was being cautious, and with her past, she had to be. “Oh. Cool.”

 

Regina’s right brow raised at that. “Cool?”

 

“What else do you want me to say?”

 

Regina sighed, taking a step toward Janis. “We’ve both already done the apology thing. More than once. We don’t need to do it again.”

 

“I’m sensing a but in there somewhere.”

 

She shook her head, a fond smile forming on her lips. “But are you okay?”

 

“Okay with you using Tinder to bang girls?”

 

“That’s definitely not what I’m doing, _thanks_.” Regina glared at her with no real malice behind it. “Honestly, I swiped right on you at first because I knew you. It’s, like, a common courtesy thing or whatever. And then we matched a few days later.” She shifted her purse higher up onto her shoulder. “Is it so hard to believe that I could actually like you?”

 

“That’s what this is?” _That_ wasn’t something Janis had considered before. Fine, maybe Regina did like girls, but why would she like _her_? With everything in their past, she didn’t believe that could be a possibility. But the idea of it wasn’t at all terrible. Regina was insanely attractive, and she _knew_ her. She’s known her for years, and if she happened to like her, then what the hell was wrong with that? They had a tentative friendship going currently, and maybe they’d need to work a little more before they got there, but Janis wasn’t all that opposed. How could she be against being with someone she’s known for her entire life? “You have feelings for me?”

 

“Is it,” she stopped, breathing in deeply. “Is it okay if I do?”

 

Everything about Regina at the moment seemed completely uncharacteristic. She was hesitant, stiff, and overall anxious. The privacy they currently had might’ve been helping, but their conversation probably added to her stress. Janis noticed before that she always tended to throw Regina for a loop, and though the power of that was satisfying, walking on eggshells got old after a while.

 

“I think it’d be fine, yeah.” Janis shrugged, and Regina’s eyes seemed hopeful. “We can get there at some point.”

 

Regina looked like she was about to respond when the sound of the bell cut her off. The noise outside the door became less muffled as people started to leave lunch, and Janis knew it was only a matter of time before someone snuck in the restroom before their next class.

 

“Walk with me?” Regina asked, and Janis noticed her usual attitude had suddenly reappeared. Her reassurance must’ve been enough.

 

“Sure.” Janis knew she had to stop at her locker but figured being late would be worth it. Math could always wait, in her opinion. “Okay, one more question.” She held the door open for Regina, and they joined the back of the crowd moving down the hallway. “Why did you crop me out of your last picture?”

 

Regina held her purse closer to her as some lower classmen tried squeezing past her. She eyed him, and Janis was fully prepared to try wrangling her when she attacked him. He shockingly passed through unharmed, though, and it only took Regina a few seconds to compose herself. “People would’ve thought you were my girlfriend.”

 

Janis felt her face heat up, and she was sure Regina would take notice. “What’s so wrong with that?”

 

Regina _smirked_ , and Janis fully thought she might’ve asked the wrong question. “Oh, nothing. I just don’t share.”

 

* * *

 

Since then, Tinder had become nonexistent to her. The app was buried among others that she no longer used, and a lot of her time was spent with her friends and newfound _girlfriend_.

 

It did take a while for them to get there, and it didn’t come without a few bumps. But they were finally there, together, and everyone knew about it.

 

Janis was lounging on her couch in her garage, feet up on her table, while she scrolled through the different apps on her phone. There were games that she hadn’t played in years, old art editing apps that weren’t updated, and even some social media ones that she no longer felt the need to post on. In the middle of those apps was Tinder. The white flame with the reddish background stood out to her in that moment, and she couldn’t help but wonder why it was still on her phone.

 

“What’re you doing?” She felt an arm slip down over her shoulder and toward the center of her chest. Regina’s head was gently pressed against her temple, and Janis immediately smiled.

 

“Hey.” She turned her head, placing a kiss to her cheek. “When’d you get here?”

 

“Just now.” She pulled her hand up a little, resting it on Janis’s shoulder instead. “Should I be concerned you were ready to makeout with the first person who snuck up on you?”

 

Janis rolled her eyes, though she knew Regina couldn’t see it. “Shut up. I knew it was you.”

 

“So you never answered me.” Regina, still in her heels, jumped over the top of the couch, landing next to Janis— ignoring the girl’s disapproving glare. “What’s up?”

 

“Actually,” She turned her phone so Regina could see it. “I just noticed I still have my Tinder.” Janis wiggled her eyebrows, tapping the screen so the app would come up.

 

“You never deleted it?” Regina frowned, elbowing her lightly. Janis just smiled, fully knowing that she wasn’t actually offended.

 

“Oh, yeah, I’m on here daily.”

 

Regina rolled her eyes, moving closer to Janis on the couch. She wrapped an arm around Janis’s shoulder, the girl leaning back to rest her head on Regina’s chest. “Then show me all your girls.”

 

Janis chuckled, the notification popping up asking for the inactive account to be verified again. “There they are.”

 

Regina didn’t respond, instead pressing another kiss to Janis’s temple.

 

She closed out of the app, the entire page littered with all kinds of different folders. They both sat there, contently cuddling, before Janis held down Tinder and pressed the delete button.

 

“You didn’t have to do that.” Regina gently squeezed her shoulder, leaning her head onto Janis’s. “You know I trust you.”

 

“I really don’t need it.” She pulled Regina’s left hand down, interlacing their fingers together. Janis plopped her phone down on the couch, simply enjoying the embrace. It wasn’t often that they were able to do this; neither of them were too keen on physical displays of affection— that was more Gretchen and Karen’s thing— so it was left for their private moments. They didn’t get too many of those, though, usually being surrounded by at least their group of friends. Coming across her old Tinder app, hidden in a sea of unused games in a misnamed folder, showed her how far they’ve actually come. Even from that point earlier in the year. She felt herself unconsciously smile and leaned back into the other girl’s chest.

 

“Okay, but can we go into your actual house? This whole garage reeks of wet paint.”

 

Janis smiled wider and squeezed Regina’s hand. She wouldn’t want it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> send prompts: kleksuh.tumblr.com


End file.
